AllianceLTCPaper.pdf (application/pdf Object)

As President Barack Obama and Congress debate health care reform, it is important that long-term
care be included.1 While not central to providing basic health insurance to all Americans, long-term care
should be part of efforts to improve health care for all Americans. Contrary to widespread belief that longterm
care affects only a small minority of the population, 69 percent of people turning age 65 will need
long-term care before they die and a third of the population will spend some time in a nursing home
(Kemper, Komisar and Alecxih, 2005/2006). In thinking about the place of long-term care in the health
reform debate, four factors are important:
First, with the aging of the population, the number of older people with disabilities is sure to grow
substantially. According to one estimate, the number of older people with disabilities will approximately
double between 2000 and 2030 (Johnson, Toomey, and Wiener, 2007). As a result, the relative financial
and other burdens of long-term care will be greater in the future than they are now. Comprehensive
reform will need to take into account both the number of people needing long-term care in the future and
their characteristics, which may be very different than today…..

AllianceLTCPaper.pdf (application/pdf Object)